The present invention relates to electric hair clippers, trimmers and shavers, and specifically to such devices having blade assemblies that are pivotable and in some cases detachable relative to the handle portion.
Presently there are three methods used to cut human head hair or body hair: the manual razor, the electric clipper, and the electric clipper combined with additional attachments such as a household vacuum.
A major advantage of the manual razor is that it provides a simple, skin close hair cut. Inherent in its simplicity, however, are the disadvantages or being unable to accurately and consistently gauge hair cutting lengths other than skin-close, of the opportunity to nick one's skin with such a razor, and that any such hair trimming is achieved with no opportunity to perform the task neatly and without the need for clean up afterward.
Conventional electric hair clipper systems include two main components: a combined handle and drive system, and a removable or adjustable hair length gauge that functions to comb the hair toward a set of reciprocating blades. The blade assembly typically includes a fixed blade and a moving blade coaxially reciprocating relative to the fixed blade. In addition to removing hair on the human head, conventional electric hair clippers are often used to remove unwanted or unhygienic body hair. A major disadvantage of conventional hair trimming methods, especially concerning the removal of body hair, is that electric clippers are not designed to accommodate the users anatomy beyond certain parts of the head such as scalp, beard and neck. Without skin protection, such as a safety guard, and without a design that allows a user to access certain hard-to-reach or sensitive body surfaces such as the back, conventional hair clippers can be awkward and inaccurate, even injurious during any such body hair application.
Electric hair clippers are occasionally used with vacuum attachment means to evacuate clipped hair debris. While the obvious advantage of neatness is addressed using this clipper method there remain some equally obvious disadvantages. More specifically, no matter whether the operator intends to use such a clipper system to cut head hair or to cut body hair the shape of the hair clipper with its attachments is unwieldy and does not accommodate certain hard-to-reach or sensitive body surfaces for hygienic clipping. Also the hair clipper attachments are typically intended for use with a household vacuum producing a very definite and very loud noise in the work area while in operation, and not every household that could benefit from a home hair clipper set possesses a type of vacuum appropriate for this clipper method.
One disadvantage of these conventional hair clipper units having attachments that serve as a comb, or guide, or length gauge is the difficulty in efficiently placing or aligning the typically large, attachments on the skin surface of certain body areas for cutting or trimming of the hair there at predictable and consistent lengths. When utilizing conventional electric hair clippers, the operator accomplishes the hair cutting by employing a “combing” motion typically requiring a lengthy comb attachment that painfully scrapes or scratches sensitive body areas and also prevents the clipper from performing the actual hair cutting when such a method is applied in tight or close body areas such as the groin or underarm, or in other words, where there is not sufficient work area to accomplish the combing motion. The combs are typically shaped of angular plastic that catches the skin and causes scratching or scraping of the skin as well as uneven cutting of the hair and can impede the user's ability to positively control the blade position or cutting angle as the clipper is passed over the skin surface.
Another disadvantage of both manual razors and conventional hair clipper systems is that cut or clipped hair debris is allowed to fall back onto the skin surface or to fall into the work area requiring some type of additional work for hygienic removal of said hair debris. Furthermore, conventional hair trimming methods typically necessitate that the user acquire and organize multiple tools or tedious cleansing methods to accomplish the work from start to finish. For example, the need for vacuum attachments, a vacuum or broom, mirror aids, protective clothing such as towels or capes, and/or an array of hair debris collection or removal techniques including vacuuming, sweeping or bathing can produce a hair cutting or hair trimming experience that is frustrating, time consuming, cumbersome, or even injurious if one's skin is scratched, scraped or nicked by an attachment or by an unprotected blade.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair clipper wherein hair clippings are immediately suctioned away through the clipper handle portion and this action requires no special parts or unwieldy attachments other than the personal size vacuum hair collection canister and suction hose distributed with and connected to the clipper unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair clipper wherein the blade assembly is easily pivotable into at least two cutting angles and provides the user with a multi use tool that either can be angled at approximately 45 degrees from perpendicular for ideally cutting hair from the head or can be angled at approximately 90 degrees from perpendicular for the ideal hygienic clipping of certain hard-to-reach or sensitive body surfaces.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair clipper wherein the difficult-to-reach area of the back is addressed such that the clipper is integrally designed to receive an extending attachment allowing the user to easily pass the clipper blades over the surface of the back to remove unwanted or unhygienic back hair.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved hair clipper wherein the attachments conventionally known as combs, guides or length gauges (“guard/gauges”) are designed to address the at least dual function of the improved hair clipper such that guard/gauges intended for the cutting of head hair are similar, if only in that comb portion, to those of convention with respect to shape and function of the comb portion and allow the user to accurately comb hair into the path of suctioned airflow and into the cutting blades while set at their 45 degree angle within the handle portion of the clipper and thus achieve an anticipated cut hair length; and guard/gauges intended for the cutting of body hair are specially designed to fit within the approximate 1.5 inch depth of the clipper unit, and in certain cases are specially designed for use in a “rolling” motion as well as a combing motion such that when hair on a sensitive or angled portion of the body is to be trimmed, as would be the case in the bikini area, the user can gently “roll” the body hair into the stream of air being suctioned through the handle portion of the clipper unit and into the path of the cutting blades for accurate cut length and immediate, safe, comfortable and hygienic evacuation of hair debris from the skin surface and from the work area.